Specializing in minimalist fiction and creative non-
Part 4: Local people call it “the Land of Death”…
Chapter 13: Before the heatwave, Guma was a poor, peaceful, segregated town. Although less than ten percent of the population, the Chinese ruled and as everywhere in Xinjiang ruled severely at the least sign of disquiet by minorities.
Chapter 17: It was not the same desert he had seen during his first day in Guma. It was now the “terrible beauty” Uyghurs rarely talked about, the binary environment of attraction and repulsion, hot and cold, bright and dark, and abundant life and widespread death.
Chapter 3: “Our father told us the Taliban and al Qaeda were worse than the Chinese.”
The old man promptly turned his mouth to Aman’s ear. “That talk could get you and your brother killed.”
“We will never give up our culture; and when we are free of the Chinese, our singing and dancing will drive them away as well.” Aman spoke adamantly, though he now saw more fully how his homeland was caught between two relentless, nearly invincible evils.
Kosan’s bitter laughter was an ugly sound to the young man.
Chapter 19: Robert stared at the black, glistening face. It exuded a confidence that he had seen in few other people, all academics at the top of their fields. Comparing a warrior with academics suddenly seemed ludicrous considering what this man’s words meant. What was scholastic twaddle compared with taking one’s own life, a friend’s, and a lover’s to avoid unspeakable torture?
Chapter 17: His father had taught him a man with wŭdé, martial virtue, could not be defeated by a man without wŭdé. His mother had reminded him of the other side of that coin, that a murderous nature could go beyond ordinary competence into the realm of a madman’s genius and physical strength. “Your father believes in paradoxes, my dear, one of which is a moral man is a better fighter than an immoral man.”
Part 1: Mischief At The Beginning
1. Issue A Cry That Shakes The World
Part 2: The Chief Moral Force
2. His Conscience Was Eaten By A Dog
3. The Qu’ran That Binds
4. Three Men Create A Tiger
5. Constant God’s Eye View
6. Brothers Are Like Arms And Legs
7. Fallen Leaves Return To Their Roots
Part 3: The Great Game
8. Of Course This Is About Islam
9. Mao’s Good Comrades
10. No Disease Is More Serious Than Complacency
11. You Have Your Policy; I Have My Counterpolicy
12. The Superior Man Gathers His Weapons
Part 4: The Land Of Death
13. Inferior To The Local Worm
14. The Worst Cowardice
15. All Crows Are The Same Color
16. Jūnzĭ
Part 5: The Efficacy Of Love and Violence
17. Women Hold Up Half The Sky
18. Softly, Softly Catchy Sandmonkey
19. Escape Is Not Defeat
Part 6: Killer Complexes
20. Primitive Claims Of...Superiority
For maps of China and the region of Xinjiang where most of the story takes place, click here.
In The Superior Men of Xinjiang, an environmental crisis in the largely desolate Xinjiang region of the People’s Republic of China re-ignites the centuries-old conflict between the native Uygurs and their recurrent Chinese masters. The escalating disaster draws in criminals, opportunistic politicians, terrorists, and military forces. A Uygur doctor and Chinese colleague defy Beijing and enter the affected region. A Chinese-American doctor, Dr Robert Jiang, with the aid of an American special operations team, infiltrates Xinjiang to rescue his Uygur and Chinese friends from gangsters, Muslim radicals, and Special Forces of the People’s Armed Police. Together with another “hybrid,” a resolute young Uygur-Chinese woman, Robert uses a rare Chinese-Muslim martial art (xīn yì liù hé quán) in confrontations with their enemies. The information they attempt to bring out of Xinjiang could jeopardize the Communist Party’s long subjugation of the region and eventually its control over the whole of China.
The chief moral force in society is the example of the Superior Man. [Confucius]
